Chile: Only 27% of Femicide Cases Got a Sentence

The Chilean Network Against Violence Against Women (RCVM) denounced that 73 percent of the cases of femicide recorded between 2010 and 2019 remained unpunished. 

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In 486 out of 579 femicides that occurred in that period, the aggressors had an intimate or intimate-family relationship with their victims.

The Chilean Network condemned the failures of precautionary and protection measures for gender violence victims as perpetrators had complaints of domestic violence filed previously by the victims themselves in about 30 percent of the cases.

Observatory Against Harassment (OCAC) President Carolina Jimenez described as "evident" the lack of monitoring systems on aggressors with precautionary measures and the absence of laws to protect the victims. 

"We do not have a judicial system that protects the victims of domestic violence, which is not taken on many occasions as a public relevance matter because it happens between four walls," she said.

Last year, there were 55 out of 58 femicides were of an "intimate-intimate family" nature. The Chilean Network also recorded 3 crimes of "parricide by connection", 2 transphobic murders, and 3 cases identified as "femicidal suicide."

A Femicide Law was enacted in 2010 to increase the penalties for femicide crimes committed by the victim's spouse or partner, thus excluding any other type of gender violence.

It was not until last year that new regulation, "the Gabriela law",  condemned all crimes against women where gender is a determining factor, including femicides, regardless of the type of nexus between the victim and the perpetrator.